House Wrens and Dummy Nests

BirdNote^®

House Wrens Build Dummy Nests

Written by Bob Sundstrom

This is BirdNote.
[House Wren song, http://macaulaylibrary.org/audio/210537, 0.02-.07]

There may be no busier bird during the nesting season than a male House Wren.  Because just a day or so after migrating back north from the tropics, he claims a territory and sets to work checking out potential nest cavities. Might be a birdhouse, a hollow pipe, an old nuthatch hole, or one of last year’s oriole nests. And in each of these locations, the male House Wren builds a starter nest.
[House Wren call, http://macaulaylibrary.org/audio/94401, 0.14-.17]
He will stack a couple of dozen tiny twigs here, several hundred there. And he’ll use whatever else comes to hand – or beak – too, from nails and bits of wire, to paper clips and hairpins. Anything twig-like to get the job done.
[House Wren song, http://macaulaylibrary.org/audio/210537, 0.02-.04]
The male House Wren stays at it until a female pairs with him. She now picks one of the starter nests and takes over construction, building a sturdy platform of sticks topped by a cup nest lined with grass, hair, feathers – even snakeskin. 
[House Wren call, http://macaulaylibrary.org/audio/94401, 0.14-.17]
The male’s leftover starter nests may discourage other birds from nesting in those cavities. People maintaining bluebird houses have learned to dump out these dummy nests once a female House Wren has made her choice. This helps bluebirds find a space to nest.
At least until next spring, when that male House Wren gets busy again. 
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Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York.
BirdNote's theme music was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
Producer: John Kessler
Executive Producer: Dominic Black
© 2016 Tune In to Nature.org    June 2016 / April 2023   
Narrator: Michael Stein

ID#  HOWR-02-2016-06-02    HOWR-02